Yellowstone recommendations- lodging, etc?

[mrsklamc]

Any tips on how to get there or where to stay? Thanks!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

When are you planning on going? A lot of the in park accommodations fill up almost a year in advance. There are 5 main places to stay in the park, depending on which part of the park you want to explore. We stayed in the Canyon and Old Faithful areas. You should try to find some guide books to help answer your questions. You can also try the Yellowstone NP website.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Are you camping or staying in a hotel?

 

[mrsklamc]

You should try to find some guide books to help answer your questions. You can also try the Yellowstone NP website.

I've done both, but I've found that asking on the DIS usually provides better info for a trip than just guidebooks or websites; often people have located a special gem in their own travels that makes for an amazing experience.

 

[mrsklamc]

Are you camping or staying in a hotel?

Either. We're aware that hotels in Yellowstone book far in advance, weren't sure if anyone had stayed anywhere on their way in or out that they'd recommend or stopped anywhere special to eat or check out the view.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I've done both, but I've found that asking on the DIS usually provides better info for a trip than just guidebooks or websites; often people have located a special gem in their own travels that makes for an amazing experience.

If that's the case, then everything that I could share with you is in my Yellowstone trip report in my sig.

 

[Sweettears]

We stayed at the Lake Yellowstone lodge. It was nice but somewhat dated. Very convenient for touring the park. We spent part of our trip in Jackson which has a ton of options and good dining. Its not too far from Yellowstone and very close to the Tetons.

 

[skiingfast]

We stayed at the Lake Yellowstone lodge. It was nice but somewhat dated. Very convenient for touring the park. We spent part of our trip in Jackson which has a ton of options and good dining. Its not too far from Yellowstone and very close to the Tetons.

While some places in Yellowstone are more modern than historic, only one place is truly modern.

The almost new Snow Lodge in the Old Faithful Village.

 

[skiingfast]

Either. We're aware that hotels in Yellowstone book far in advance, weren't sure if anyone had stayed anywhere on their way in or out that they'd recommend or stopped anywhere special to eat or check out the view.

Where are you coming from?
Where are you going?
How long will you be there?

If I don't answer PM me.

I've stay in hotels in 4 of the 5 entrance towns, the remaining one has a populations of a couple hundred people.

I've camped in evey campground in the parks but have been in most of the hotels many times. I've also camped all over outside the parks.

 

[azlaura]

We love staying in Cooke City., the Beartooth Cafe had great homemade food when we were there 2 years ago. We usually rent cabins, we have in west Yellowstone and in Cooke city. If you want the names just pm me and I can give you more info.
We have also flown to SLC and drove to West Yellowstone and flown into Idaho Falls and drove to Jaxkson Hole because they closed the entire airport for resurfacing and then flew home from Bozeman.
Our next trip I am looking into flying into Billings since we are going to stay near Cooke City again.

 

[rbbs]

Where are you coming from?
Where are you going?
How long will you be there?

If I don't answer PM me.

I've stay in hotels in 4 of the 5 entrance towns, the remaining one has a populations of a couple hundred people.

I've camped in evey campground in the parks but have been in most of the hotels many times. I've also camped all over outside the parks.

We are likely camping as we haven't booked anything yet......Can you give me the names and numbers (if you have them) of some camp grounds close to Old Faithful keeping in mind that we likely only want to pay $50 per night to camp. We have our own gear and don't want to stay in a cabin or anything like that. Any advice would be great and will keep me from my inclination of just happening upon the place and talking my way into a last minute place to stay If this fails then my plan B often includes making my own campground
Thanks in advance for sharing your experience in this area as I have only been there once before and it was years and years ago.....stayed in a cabin back then....

 

[skiingfast]

We are likely camping as we haven't booked anything yet......Can you give me the names and numbers (if you have them) of some camp grounds close to Old Faithful keeping in mind that we likely only want to pay $50 per night to camp. We have our own gear and don't want to stay in a cabin or anything like that. Any advice would be great and will keep me from my inclination of just happening upon the place and talking my way into a last minute place to stay If this fails then my plan B often includes making my own campground
Thanks in advance for sharing your experience in this area as I have only been there once before and it was years and years ago.....stayed in a cabin back then....

To camp in yellowstone reserve a spot, right now for this summer sometimes a week out or even day will do but it's risky so as soon as you know dates reserve. But not all campgrounds allow reservations. Xanterra runs Canyon, Madison, Bridge Bay, and Grant Village. 307-344-7311 For the rest it's walk up. Important for most of the camping you will have to circle the campground waiting for somone to leave their spot so try to get there between 8am and 11am, the earlier the better chance you have. The main campgrounds will fill up every night and there isn't much overflow into the other camp grounds so they fill up too. Also within the park you can only camp in campgrounds.

Outside the park in the National Forests it's more wide open as to wear you pitch your tent. The forest do have regular pay campground too.

My favorite spot to camp in the park is Norris. Nice camp ground, elk usually nearby to add to the atmosphere, Gibbon river flows near it, little hot spring at the end of the second loop on the left. It's also fairly central to the rest of the park.

Closest to Old Faithful is the Madison Campground, find a spot in the farthest locations from the entrance. There is a spot on the Madison river with some shallows hot spring pools to lay in at that end.

The other central park is Canyon. This is what I would call camping in the woods. Trees forever and not as exciting as the other two.

Camping is about $14-$20 a night, either pay ahead or cash or check when there. Exact change, you put your fee in an envelope and get a stub to put on your site post. Each day the post will be checked and the stub audited against who deposited the money. You can pay multiple days at once. And stay for upto 14 days. Though I have stayed 14 days then moved to the site next to me for 14 more.

The main camp grounds have flush toilets. The small ones have pit toilets. They have storage lockers for food (because of bears). Picnic tables, and pads to pitch tents on.

If you have more questions or need more details please let me know.

 

[rbbs]

^Thanks!! I just booked July 7th @ Grant and 8th @ Madison as they were soo booked up already that they could only get us in one night at each place Also will only allow us to use a max 10 x 10 tent so we have to use our smaller tent while staying there........Oh well.....no complaining from me as I am glad I got on this and got this booked today!! Thanks for the phone number and the info.....you should be getting a commission out of this

 

[katman2540]

I will be camping at Canyon with my wife for 3 nights starting 7/14. I have been before but it will be my wife's first time there. All part of our 3 week grand circle tour of the country. I hope you have fun there!

 

[skiingfast]

^Thanks!! I just booked July 7th @ Grant and 8th @ Madison as they were soo booked up already that they could only get us in one night at each place Also will only allow us to use a max 10 x 10 tent so we have to use our smaller tent while staying there........Oh well.....no complaining from me as I am glad I got on this and got this booked today!! Thanks for the phone number and the info.....you should be getting a commission out of this

Like I mentioned you can try getting to Norris early and see if you can sneak into a spot to get more time in the park.

The 10x10 rule is because you can only pitch your tent on the pads in the campgrounds and it won't accomodate anything bigger. Almost every site has these pads to reduce erosion.

If you want to camp outside the park, to get more time there, your pass to the park is good for 7 days, and is shall we say a "Park Hopper". It's good for a week in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

In Grand Teton you can usually get a spot in the Gros Ventre campground. It nice big spread out campground in the trees near a river. Prime spot to see a moose. And has a local buffalo heard withing a few miles from the edge of the trees. Some antelope too. Colter Bay is a good second choice but fills fast like the places in Yellowstone. But remember Grand Teton is not a good place to stay to visit yellowstone because you have about an extra hour of driving.

If you can camp without a toilet and water, just find a road into the woods around Yellowstone, you can mostly do this around Grand Teton too. Lots of double tracks going to logging areas or hunting camps. Just can't camp within 100 yards of a trailhead. Remember be bear aware, put your fire dead out and leave no trace.

 

[Simba's Mom]

As someone said before, lodging does book up, some a year in advance. But there's nothing like staying in the park! We've gone 3 times, and a co-worker of DH wants to go in 2012. So for fun, I was looking at the website for Yellowstone Lodging this afternoon, specifically where we stayed last time (Mammoth Hot Springs cabins). Wow, I couldn't believe that they're already sold out for a lot of dates. However, I remember when I'd called for reservations one year, the lady told me that there are a lot of cancellations in the early spring, so don't give up on where you want to stay. Just don't expect TVs, telephones, free wi-fi (or any wi-fi), cell reception, in the park. DH (and lots of other people, we noticed) could only get cell reception in the big parking lot by Old Faithful Geyser and hotel. We were just talking about Yellowstone last night and reminiscing about what a wonderful time we had. One last thing is the weather-in the 3 Junes we went, it snowed each trip, sometimes closing certain areas, once closing entrance to the entire park. The only advantage to our plane delaying our arrival on our last trip-had we arrived when planned, we would have sat in the snow outside the park all day, unable to get in.

 

[CPT Tripss]

I have been able to book by telephone when "no vacancy" showed up on the web site. But, there were times when that did not work. Also try telephone booking up to the day you leave, "stuff" happens.

 

[skiingfast]

I have been able to book by telephone when "no vacancy" showed up on the web site. But, there were times when that did not work. Also try telephone booking up to the day you leave, "stuff" happens.

I had a friend who worked a front desk in the town of Jackson, WY. Many people would try to "walk up" hoping for a room. That were amazed there were no rooms in the area and suggested they try going to Idaho Falls, Idaho or that only the 4Seasons has rooms left for $400. Some of these people had already been told no up in Yellowstone. Stuff can happen and stuff can go terribly wrong too.

 

[CPT Tripss]

I had a friend who worked a front desk in the town of Jackson, WY. Many people would try to "walk up" hoping for a room. That were amazed there were no rooms in the area and suggested they try going to Idaho Falls, Idaho or that only the 4Seasons has rooms left for $400. Some of these people had already been told no up in Yellowstone. Stuff can happen and stuff can go terribly wrong too.

I certainly was not advocating heading to these popular destinations with no ressies. Did you read it that way?

But if I have a safety valve ressie, I keep trying to get into my preferred accommodation up to my cancelation deadline.